Academic Lineage

Early in my PhD program I became interested in my academic lineage. I learned from the first day of working with my PhD advisors (as an undergraduate) that they were friendly with and had worked with a number of very skilled scientists throughout their career. Through a series of discussions over a number of years, I began to understand that an academic lineage is not simply a straight line from advisor to mentored student as written on a thesis document. For this reason, the important or critical individuals who mentor someone can become more central than their primary advisor.

The lineage I've constructed below, with the help of online sources (some of which have sadly disappeared), reflects what I believe to be my academic lineage. I've tried to add notes in some places on various connections.

I list them in chronological order and include ****BREAK POINT**** for instances where there is a split or connection to another line. I am unsure of some of the spelling and will continue to revise as I have time and inclination.

The most interesting connecting individuals, in my estimation, are Richard Abegg, George Gibson, Glenn Seaborg, and F. Albert Cotton. I include Cotton solely because of the daunting number of doctoral students he supervised during his lifetime (76).

Arrhenius LineSvente ArrheniusRichard Abegg ****BREAK POINT****NB: Abegg, who died at the age of 41 in a ballooning accident had Hofman as an advisor, but changed fields and later was mentored and worked mostly with Arrhenius and Nernst

Nernst LineWalther NernstRichard Abegg ****BREAK POINT****NB: Abegg, who died at the age of 41 in a ballooning accident had
Hofman as an advisor, but changed fields and later was mentored and
worked mostly with Arrhenius and Nernst

Gibson LineGeorge Gibson ****BREAK POINT****Glenn T. Seaborg ****BREAK POINT****Geoffrey WilkinsonF. Albert CottonDave & Jane Richardson ****BREAK POINT****NB: Dave Richardson got his PhD in the laboratory of Cotton at MIT solving the 3D structure of staph nuclease becoming the 10th such crystal structure of a protein to be solved by x-ray crystallography. Through discussions with Dave & Jane (my advisors) it became clear to me that the interactions and work with Anfinsen were as critical an influence as Cotton was. They often cite them both as mentors to them.

Lawrence LineWilliam Francis Gray SwannErnest O. LawrenceGlenn T. Seaborg ****BREAK POINT****NB: Seaborg and Lawrence were very close working on many different isotopes and fathering nuclear chemistry and big-science. Interestingly, Seaborg married the secretary of Lawrence during the ramp up of The Manhattan Project.

Anfinsen LineErnest L. ScottAlbert Baird HastingsChristian B. AnfinsenDave & Jane Richardson ****BREAK POINT****NB: Through discussions with Dave & Jane (my advisors) it became clear
to me that the interactions and work with Anfinsen were as critical an
influence as Cotton was. They often cite them both as mentors to them.